50 Women to Kona

[naomigilker]

I’ve been following this story for the last couple of weeks because I had no idea until I read about it on Twitter, and I’m sure many triathletes are in the same boat. I was very disappointed to learn that Ironman (the brand owned by the WTC) does not feel the need to have equal distribution of Pro slots for male and female competitors at major races such as Kona. They have unconvincing claims as to why there are 50 slots for male pro athletes but only 35 for the female pros. In a sport that tends to be relatively inclusive, especially at the amateur level, it’s shocking to me that this form of inequality still exists.

You can follow on Twitter here: @50womentokona

There are several articles and blog posts that can easily be found by googling "50 women to Kona", and slowtwitch has one here that summarises the situation nicely www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/The_50_Women_To_Kona_letter_4890.html

One of the articles/blog posts - can’t remember anymore – mentioned that Ireland’s own Eimear Mullan would be one of the pro-female athletes that could really benefit should she be given a chance to compete at the World Championships in Kona with additional slots for women. Kona is always a great race to watch and the women haven’t disappointed in the last few years; it would be nice to see more of them out there pushing each other!

Anyways, just thought I'd share in case anyone else was interested in following this story.

[britta]

Have been following that story for a while and especially the results last year in the pro field was quite interesting, only very few pro Girls dropped out during the race but quite a few of the men had to quit. At the end nearly the same number of pro Men and Pro Woman finished, but fully agree same number on each site should start whatever that number is